Various applications model digital three-dimensional models of urban scenes. Such models can be used, for example, to facilitate easy manipulation of the scenes in a digital computing environment. For example, city planning commissions or real estate developers may use digital models to visualize how different development options would appear in the context of existing surroundings. As another example, emergency response teams may use digital models of various portions of a city to develop comprehensive response strategies for various disasters or events affecting large numbers of people. As another example, movie or game developers may use digital models in place of actual video footage to develop various scenes.
In some implementations, the digital models are created by scanning or digitizing actual scenes and extracting individual objects from the digitized scenes. Models of the individual objects can then be used to recreate the actual scenes digitally—for example, to facilitate visualization of changes to the scene, or to create a library of objects from which new scenes can be built.